Automatic telephone ticketing system



Jan. 26, 1954 E, P. WRIGHT Em 2,667,538

AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE TICKETING SYSTEM Filed March 3, 1950 5 Sheets-Sheet1 I LW l asj 0 (861mm Electron/ c Counter mmmllj N Cant/'07 Punches 5 Inveniors .ESMOND R a. WEIGHT 7 uasEPH (P/CE Attorney J 1954 E. P. G.WRIGHT ETAL ,538

AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE TICKETING SYSTEM Filed March 3, 1950 5 Sheets-Sheet2 2 EL ma Attorney nventors EJMOND R6, WEIGHT UASEPH RICE Jan. 26, 1954E. P. G. WRIGHT ET AL 2, 38

AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE TICKETING SYSTEM Filed March 3, 1950 5 Sheets-Sheets All I uca AF I from NZ Inventors EHDND P- G. WEIGHT L/OSEPH R/CE Allorney E. P. G. WRIGHT ET AL ,667, 38

AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE TICKETING SYSTEM Jan. 26, 1954 Filed March 3, 1950 5Sheets-Sheet 4 .4 mm U63 f u c/ 'mm uc2 fhade F Cat/10d? T635500? mr/flF 03 AL .L W T TM UM Inventors ESMOND A c WRIGHT JOSEPH RICE Jan. 1954E. P. G. WRIGHT ETAL 2,667,538

AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE TICKETING SYSTEM Filed March 3, 1950 5 Sheets-Sheet5 I nvenlors EJMOND P. G. WR/GHT \JQSEPH Rica W' Attorney Patented Jan.26, 1954 UNITED 'AUTOMATIC'TELEPHONETITIGKETING SYSTEM Application March3, 1950; Serial N0.h147,'352

-. Claims priority,.application GreatBritain .March 15,1949

7 Claims. 1.11

[The invention re1ates-.to automaticv telecommunication exchangesystems.

.The, object. of .thepresent. invention .is. to providev aneconomicaland vsimplesystem for, testing. the conditions, of-.-the,lines ina group .of circuits.

..The main feature ofJthepres nt i v ti n as applied in anautomatic.telecommunication exchange comprisesmeans for automaticallyscan- .ningia.group,,. ofcircuits, means .for, testing ,the condition of .thecircuits during. a. scanning. and means. for, recording the. identityof. a circuit in a particular condition.

.-,A further feature. ofthe, ;invention comprises theuse insuch.anexchange.ofscanning means comprising a group .ofstatic ,electric.switches.

. A static electric. switch isa static-electrical deyice,-.-the.conductivity of a path through.,.which is capable} of. a particular:change from. one quasistationary. value .towanother separatequasi-stationary. yalue at, .and ,on1y= at,...a.. certain voltagecondition appliedtosaiddevice.

. The. .inventionswill now-be described. with reference to the.accompanying drawings showing as.- an-example, 2. subscribers, meteringsystem, .in which Fig. 1 is an operationalschematic of one, embcdiment:of the invention,

:Eigs..2,-. 3,; and- 4-- show detailan embodiment of-,.the. invention.,rEig. 3,sh Ould-.be placed. to the light of. Big. 2,- and Ei ht 4.placed at the rightof Fi 3.

5, Fig.. 5 shows: a, modifiedformv of ,the circuit. of Figs. 2,. 3randg4adapted-for, 4,,thwiremetering.

. Rig. 6 shWs--;metering; pulses to .be. described I later.

qRefer ring first to; Fig.2 1-,. asubscriber. .SU-is-con- :nected.'.to,- a line, s e1ector.:,LS and 1 through LS to a; group selectorGS.in; anormal manner. .The subscriber-118E :,is.:a1so.-.-connected 1over.. 1ead--P- to an electronidfinder; electronic counter and punchcontrol. 1; Theipunchz-rcontrolpperates 1118 punches 1 -0, to. mark thedes ignation desiredyon the-card.

g Eigs.i2, 3-.and 4;. togetherrshow-an embodiment .ofilthe. invention:adaptedta MSG? inaa .booster battery systemiin whichmeteriglPillsesarereceiyed 911331131181 third-pr;:privateawire -of-.thercallingsubscribe'r l1ine;;circ uit. As;t:is well, H1113, booster:battery metering ;-eircuit; gthezmcter is; so designed} zthatgit doesnot c erate omthenormal :exchangeyoltage. :2When;'.however, the,.voltageris increased toga .hi hen-yalue; :by therccnnectiencf:thex-boostera orzxauxlliary:battery; in series :withtheznormahexchange'tmltage;ithe meter operates.

iRecoidingzbfi:calls-completed .prppunch cards,

so'jthat, storing and accounting. may: be carried out by known means.

LThe callingrate of anexchange would govern the number ,pf ..p,unch cardmachines required but in;v general; to, allocate. one punfch;..card"machine p r oup of ahundred. subs ri ers s s cient.

TSH," SI2 i'slno are cold ,cathodegga-seous dischargetubes eachassociated Witl'fthe private .Wllfi of man, individual 'subscriber' inthe group; MCTI 1;01 MCTI9 are 11 .point. unidirectiona1 multi-cathede.1 tubes of the type .de cribed and 'iillustra sdinthefUfiSfPatent'ihIo; 2.55 3585; issued tofirfioueh. one tubebeinsallocated to e i n t n gro of, subscribers, i'TC I" to" TC I 0andiUC l to UC! it are, counting banks fonqcountingtensigand unitsrespectivelyfPMTl toI-MT'I 0 are tubes used to operate the punchmagnetsMlI.:to Mlllfpr;.recordingthe number of the callin Subscriber."It will be apparent that although .the --counti13g banks in the presentembodimentcount ,in tens andumts it is possibleforflthem to countinanyorders; (,e. .g. tens-and twelves, or twenties and twenties) required..1 It is.also apparentthatmore than two. orders of countingvmay beprovidedfjf necessary.

The operation of the circuit; in"'the .absence of metering pulses willnow'beconsidered. "Initially .tubesl'lCl andJTICl I which are"four-electrQde 1 tubes (whereasithe other tubes in the countingtrains-.are 1 threeeelejctrode; tubes) .are struck. by lithe applicationoLa .positive potential to ,the auxiliary; tri ger electrodes by-meansofa key., K|. (Kl is c10sed.,when the equipmentis prepared; for. useandy-may comprise a manually operatedilgeymorj some, contacts of arelaywhich operates v{when gthe power .supply ;is initially switched on; thusensuring continuous. scanning of; the.sub scribe rs[ privatewires. "Theeleventh cathodes, 'NL; of, each of-ithe. multi-ca'thodetubes MCT l-l 0.are. also passing current; because: Tithe discharge, gapof .NL)isnrnade. sma11er thanilthe other. gaps. in. the; .tube.andsisfladaptedto,strike as. the ,normal potential,1,it applied. across.the tube. ,This, potential is not.,enough, ..however;. to strike, the,othen gapsatthe tuhe,-.-even-W.hen 'NL is pa in curren 'Neea ivepulsesliroma source of negative. .trigeer .uulsemare. applied, over ithecommontrigger..input.lead TL-.--to' the trigger .eclctrodes of themulthcathode... tubes. ;Un der normal .conditionswith successiyenegativepulses pplied. .to the, trigger..,e1cctro.des,. the, slew .in ,tubes,=.MCTL- I ihwquld step ,firompne. catho.de;.to the e t., .ma1 ;in .one ste-tor. each-.appliednegative trigger pulse. However,. -.the:rectifiermRL-rto anodes of the other tubes.

RIB are connected between the trigger lead and .the cathodes of tubesTCI to TCIO respectively,

in such a manner as to normally prevent the negative pulses fromreaching the cathodes only RI presents a low impedance initially, sincethe cathode voltage of TCI is positive due to the current flow throughthis tube. The trigger voltage is therefore applied to the cathodes oftube MCTI across the primary of transformer T2 and the glow steps inthis tube only. Negative pulses will be produced in the primary windingof the pulse transformer TI which correspond in phase to the triggeringpulses which successively fire the gaps of MCTI. The secondary windingof TI is so connected that positive impulses are fed to the units of thecounting bank UCI to UCI I. These tubes strike in sequence, eachextinguishing the previous tube in the manner described for example inU. S. Patent No. 2,421,005, issued on May.27,.1947, to Bray et al. Theparticular tube struck in this bank will indicate the position of theglow in MCTI Rectifiers RI I to R20 prevent pulses from TI from beingfed to the When the glow in tube MCTI reaches the eleventh gap NL thevoltage of the cathode thereof rises and a positive pulse appears on thetrigger electrode of tube TCZ, striking this tube and extinguishing tube.TCI through the sudden drop across the common load resistor in a wellknown manner and as described in the above-mentioned patent. The effectof this is to make rectifier R2 appear as a low impedance due to thepositive potential on the cathode of T02, and RI as a high impedancesincethe positive potential on the cathode of TCI is removed. The resultof this is that negative trigger pulses are switched from tube MCTI toMCT2. The action described above is repeated, the units counter againcounting in sequence with the stepping of the glow. It is evident thatthe position of the glow in the multicathode tubes is indicated by thecombination of tubes struck in the counting trains TCI to TCIIl and UCIto UCIII. For instance, if the glow is on the third cathode of MCT'I,indicating subscriber 13, this will be indicated by tubes TC! and U03being struck.

To ensure that the units bank is in step with the glow stepping, whenthe counting reaches the eleventh cathode of MCTII] a positive pulse isfed over lead 8 from NL of MCTID to the auxiliary trigger of UC II sothat if this tube is not struck, as would be the case if the two countswere in step, the counting is re-synchronized.

While counting is in progress, negative pulses are also fed to theprimary of transformer T2 via rectifier RI from the source of negativetrigger pulses. Transformer T2 is used as a pulse inverter, so thatpositive pulses are applied to the trigger electrode of MTI, associatedwith MCTI. Each of the tubes MCTI MCTII) has its own transformer T2connected in a similar manner to the one shown connected to tube MCTIand relay MTI. Owing to the biassing of the rectifiers RI-RII] from theTC tubes via leads 3 6, negative pulses would pass to the particulartransformer indicated by the position of the TC tubes. Thus, only one ofthe tubes MCTI MCTI!) would be supplied with pulses when its related MTtube was stepping. At the same time, positive pulses are supplied fromtransformer TI and since these are in phase with the pulses on thetrigger, MTI will not strike, although shouldthe cathode pulses be cutoff, the triggerpulses-will strikeMTl; 4

In Fig. 1 the private or release wires P, P etc. are connected to theelectronic finder, diagrammatically illustrated as understood by thoseskilled in the telephone art. It-will be understood, however, that eachof the private wires is connected to a particular one of the tubes SI I,SI2 etc. When a connection has been established between a calling and adesired called subscriber, a positive pulse is applied to the privatewire of the calling subscriber to the metering arrangement for recordingthe identity of the subscriber to whom the cost of the call is to becharged in the usual manner.

The action when a metering pulse appears on one of the subscribers linecircuits will now be considered. The corresponding tube, say SI2,strikes when the positive pulse appears on its trigger electrode. Theanode voltage of this tube falls from earth to some negative voltage andso causes the corresponding cathode of tube MCTI to become negative.When the glow reaches this cathode during the counting action, thisnegative voltage prevents the glow from stepping in spite of thepresence of the triggering pulses. The tube MCTI thus acts as adistributor and sequentially scans the condition of the S tubes whichare associated with the respective P wires of the subscribers line. Thescanning halts when a cathode is reached which is connected to atriggered S tube. The output from TI ceases and the units counting trainstops with the tube corresponding to the cathode on which, the glow isheld, i. e. inthis case UCZ struck. Complete marking is by TCI and U02,which indicates that metering is to take place on subscriber 2 in thefirst 10 group. Ab sence of positive pulses from TI strikes MTI,operating relay MRI. MRI operating applies H. T. to the anodes of tubesPMTI to ID over contact mrl/ l and to TM and UM anodes over mrI/5. TMstrikes due to the positive potential on its trigger electrode and apositive pulse from its cathode is applied to the trigger electrodes oftubes PMTI and PMTID. One of these tubes will have its trigger electrodeat some positive potential from one of the tubes of the tens countingtrain, whichthough not enough to strike the tube alone will do so withthe assistance of the positive voltage from TM cathode. In the casebeing considered, TCI, is struck, supplying a positive voltage to thetrigger electrode of PMTI, so that the tube will strike and via itsanode circuit operate punch magnet Ml which records the tens digit onthe punch card. Operation of MI operates relay CO over contact mr! I,which locks itself via 004 and 'mrI/B. A voltage below the sustainingvoltage of tubes PMT-PMTIO is applied to the anodes of those tubes overcontact 003 for the bunching time of the make-before-break contacts 003extinguishing PMTI. Tube UM is struck by changeover of contact 002, andthe positive pulse from the cathode of tube UM in association with thepositive voltage from UC2 cathode causes PMTZ to strike and punch magnetM2 to operate. The appropriate unit's. digit is thereby recorded; i

The operation of relay CO operated relay COA over contact col. Thus whenthe units digit is registered by operation of M2, a circuit is completedto the anode of S. I2 via coa3, mrI/3, mrI/Z from a source of negativepotential. This extinguishes tube SI2 since the potential there-v byapplied to its anode is below its sustaining voltage. Tube MTI isextingushed by its anode being connected to earth over 'contactscoaicandIL/ and relay MRI is thereby released Re-.: lease of MRI removes thenegative potential from the anode of $12 at mrl/Z open and theassociated cathode vof MCTI so that stepping along the cathodes of MCTlrecommences-Re lease of MR! also releases magnet M2 at ma l/4 open andrelays CO and COA at mrl/G open. Contact mrI/ l open removes the H..T..voltage from PMTI to PMTID and contact mrl/5 open extinguishes tubesTM and The circuit is now ready for the next metering operation.

Contact coa2 is included inthe' primary of transformer T2 to ensure thatrelay MRI can not reoperate until all the other relays have released. Ifthis precaution was-not taken, it would "be possible for the operationof MRl'to occur before release of the GOA relay, "thereby causing afalserecording; However, stepping can take place, since if another meteringmarker is encountered, the position will hold until relay COA hasreleased when recording occurs for the new number.

The circuit adapted for metering when metering pulses are received on afourth wire, as is sometimes the case with linefinder-type systems willbe described with reference to Fig. 5. It will be understood that in a4th wire metering system a separate metallic path is provided for eachsubscriber and separate level on the line finder is used. When thecalled party answers a relay responds to reverse battery and applies apotential which is adapted to actuate a meter of classical design. Amore detailed description of a known fourth wire metering arrangementmay be found on page 13 of the May 1939 issue of The Strowger Journal.Since a positive signal is no longer essential, it is possible todispense with the tubes SH to SIM, the metering leads or fourth wires ofeach subscriber in the group being directly connected to the appropriatecathodes of the tubes MCTI to MCTIU. The fan of contacts associated withthe tubes SH-Slllfl in Fig. 2 which permitted stepping after meteringare therefore also omitted. Removal of holding potential on the cathodesof MCTI is by applying thereto a positive potential over contacts ml andcoal.

In a fourth wire system it is customary for metering pulses to besupplied in a definite phase, from a meter impulse machine. This alsoapplies to an automatic telephone system which has a multiplicity ofunit fees, as in register exchanges. Metering impulses produced by ameter impulse machine for such systems are shown in Fig. 6. It will bereadily apparent that when the system is applied to unit-fee systems itis only necessary to search for a calling subscriber during theintervals A-B, C-D and E-F.

Negative trigger pulses are therefore supplied to the metering equipmentonly during the periods specified. Returning to Fig. 5, the control ofthese pulses is given by the tube TCT. The multi-cathode tube MCTI MCTIDare arranged somewhat similarly to the arrangement shown in Fig. 2 withthe exception that each cathode is connected directly to a differentfourth wire of a subscriber's group. In addition, the ultimate gap ofMCTID' is coupled to the control electrode of tube TCT. This tubestrikes when the stepping cycle reaches the eleventh cathode NL ofMCTI!) and the anode voltage is used to control the output of thenegative trigger pulse producing unit. When the next metering cycle isto commence, the anode circuit of TCT is opened by a cam which may befie es 'arr n the i -s5sm m nt sin ative. pulses are obtained a from;the automatic switches the. registerand thusno transformae time r9mPQ ti.-.nu s s a -t e as of t boostenbatterysystem, is required. l

'While the principles of theinvention have been described above. inconnection with specific example and particular modifications thereto,it is to be clearly understood that this description is-madeonly by wayof exampleand not as a limitation on the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. Automatic telecommunication exchange recording equipment comprising agroup of circuits each having two possible electrical conditions,responding means connected to each of said circuits responsive to aparticular one of said two possible electrical conditions, electronicdistributor means for automatically scanning said responding means, saiddistributor means including a source of regularly recurring pulseswhereby scanning of said responding means is continuous and at a rateequal to the frequency of the pulses from said source, detector meanscoupled to said distributor means for detecting when said distributormeans has scanned a responsive responding means, counting means undercontrol of and operable in synchronism with said distributor means forcounting each responding means scanned and recording means for recordingthe position of said counting means when said distributor means hasscanned a responsive responding means, said recording means operableunder the joint control of said detector means and said counting means.

2. Automatic telecommunication exchange as claimed in claim 1 whereinsaid distributor comprises a group of static electrical switches.

3. Automatic telecommunication exchange system as claimed in claim 1 andin which said recording means comprises a plurality of static electricalswitches.

4. Automatic telecommunication exchange recording equipment as claimedin claim 1, wherein said counting means comprises a plurality of banksof static electrical switches each switch having an output, each bankbeing for a different numerical order, a pair of additional staticswitches one of said switches having an output coupled to the respectiveoutputs of the switches of a first of said banks, and the other of saidswitches having an output coupled to the respective outputs of theswitches of another of said banks, said pair of switches under jointcontrol of said recording means and said detector means, and adapted tosequentially control the recording of digital values in a plurality.

scribers lines, said responding means comprise a plurality of separatestatic switches, each coupled to a different one of said lines, and saidrecording means comprises electro-magnetically act. thatlthe.'tubes- .Sll SL053: are not accuse operable punching equipment adapted to recordthe identity of a subscriber's line, such line being associated with joneof said static switches which has responded and has been scanned bysaid distributor means.

6. Automatic telecommunication exchange recording equipment as claimedin claim 1 wherein said distributor means comprises a plurality of coldcathode glow] discharge gaps, each com-iv prising a plurality ofelectrodes, each of said gaps corresponding to one of said respondingmeans, and means coupled to said distributor for successively causing anelectrical discharge across said gaps.

7. Automatic telecommunication exchange recording equipment as claimedin claim 6, further comprising stopping means coupled to said gaps tostop the seaming of said distributor means when said distributor meanshas scanned a responsive responding means and distributor scanningre-start means" under control of'said recording means, said re-startmeans adapted to re-start scanning of said distributor after operationof said recording means.

ESMOND PHILIP GOODWIN WRIGHT.

JOSEPH RICE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName 8 Date 1,676,742 Ostline July 10, 1928 1,681,510 Williams Aug. 21,1928 2,116,808 Germanton May 3, 1938 2,378,541 Dimond June 19, 19452,393,403

Ostline Jan. 22, 1946

